Minister's address: The New Age of Super

16 Nov 2009

On 13 November 2009, the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law and Minister for Human Services, Chris Bowen, gave the closing address entitled "The New Age of Super" to the ASFA 2009 Conference held in Melbourne, Victoria.

The Minister said:

"High income earners saving through super grows the pool of national savings, which has many benefits for our local economy. Yet these high income earners were unlikely to ever trouble their local Centrelink office in any event.

It is the improved retirement savings of low and middle income earners that will reduce the cost of the age pension, providing relief to the taxpayers of the future. But it is often the low and middle income earners who get overlooked in these kinds of debates.

Tax concessions for low and middle income earners to save through super are significantly less than the concessions available to high income earners. While the top 5% of contributors make around a quarter of all concessional contributions to superannuation, 1.2 million people receive no income tax benefit on their concessional contributions.

We need to design a system that has genuine incentives built in, to make superannuation attractive to low and middle income earners."